Pads gain credibility by snaring their picks

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Donavan Tate was in the fold and on the premises. He was introduced to the crowd at Petco Park preceding the top of the fifth inning, and waved to the camera while decked out in retro Padres regalia.

The Padres' first-round draft choice has agreed to contract terms and passed his physical, and sometime this afternoon will enter the batting cage for a photo opportunity and some ceremonial swings.

Tomorrow, the Padres will pack him off to rookie ball in Arizona to begin an apprenticeship of undetermined length. If all goes well, Tate could be playing center field in the big leagues by 2012.

If all does not go well, at least the Padres got this deal done.

Whether Donavan Tate ever attains stardom or, indeed, ever prowls center field for the Padres remains a long-range projection. Yet the symbolic value of getting him signed ought to supply new management with some meaningful street cred.

The persistent question about Jeff Moorad's ownership group has been whether it had the means to end the franchise's slide toward irrelevance. An encouraging answer arrived yesterday in the form of done deals with Tate, second-round selection Everett Williams and fourth-round choice Keyvius Sampson.

While the Washington Nationals' dramatic deadline deal with San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg was the day's most significant signing, the Padres quietly succeeded in coming to terms with their top 10 draft selections. Not only that, said Vice President Grady Fuson, but the club went over budget in the process. And not only
that
, the Padres were able to sign Tate though that meant negotiating with Scott Boras.

Despite Kyle Blanks' ninth-inning walk-off moonshot last night, the Home Team is still in last place this morning. No big league ballclub has scored fewer runs. No National League club has more ineffective starting pitching. Yet at least one of the root causes of the Padres' present predicament — a short-sighted approach to signing prime amateur talent — has been addressed.

Five years later, the hard lesson of Matt Bush appears to have been learned, for this time, the Padres did not develop sticker shock while browsing in the Boras Boutique. This time, the Padres identified the most appealing player left on the board at the No. 3 selection and, wonder of wonders, picked him, probed him, struck a deal with him and set him up with fifth-row dugout seats hours before last night's draft signing deadline.

“We sent a signal early that we were interested in signing the player as opposed to going through the motions,” Moorad said last night. “I think that signal was read clearly and appropriately . . .

“Scott (Boras) was willing to move the process along quicker than I might have guessed.”

Boras should have sensed the Padres were serious about Tate when he encountered Fuson this spring at a high school game in tiny Tallapoosa, Ga. Fuson had selected the site because it was sufficiently remote to reveal which clubs were hot on Tate's trail. Fuson says he found five representatives of the Kansas City Royals, a few area scouts, and Boras.

“I think he knew that we liked the player,” Fuson said.

Since Boras also represents Strasburg and No. 2 overall selection Dustin Ackley (who signed late with Seattle), getting the Tate deal done early may have been as much about clearing the schedule as it was emptying Moorad's wallet. Still, the lack of brinksmanship was a refreshing change of pace from an agent whose negotiating style sometimes conjures that of Vito Corleone.

What this may mean the next time around is anyone's guess. Each draft choice involves a different dynamic — different abilities, alternatives, expectations and bottom lines. Had the Padres been positioned to draft Strasburg, for example, their stress and costs would surely have been higher.

Yet inasmuch as the Padres are spending roughly twice as much on Tate (reportedly $6.25 million) as they did on any previous draft choice; that their draft expenditures exceed $9 million; and that they had offers on the table to unsigned players after locking up their top picks says new management has a new mantra.

“We made it clear from the beginning that investing in scouting and the player development system would be our lifeblood,” Moorad said. “So in that sense, the decisions were really pretty easy ones within the context of that priority.”

Presumably, those decisions became easier still when the Chicago White Sox agreed to pick up the payments last month on Jake Peavy, assuming more than $55 million in contractual obligations.

Moorad said the impact of the Peavy trade on the Padres' draft spending was “minimal.” The impact of the spending on perceptions of new management should be significant.